Album Review

Christmas Caroling is an excellent disc that rounds up 15 highlights from Ray Conniff's numerous holiday albums. Production styles may have changed over the years, but Conniff's easy listening style stayed essentially the same through it all, which means that the compilation is fairly cohesive and that it's a terrific choice for background holiday music. Among the highlights are "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen," "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Frosty the Snowman," "Joy to the World," "Jingle Bells," "O Little Town of Bethlehem" and "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer."

Biography

Born: 06 November 1916 in Attleboro, MA

Genre: Pop

Years Active: '30s, '40s, '50s, '60s, '70s, '80s, '90s

The man who popularized wordless vocal choruses and light orchestral accompaniment on a mix of popular standards and contemporary hits of the 1960s, Ray Conniff was a trombone player for Bunny Berigan's Orchestra and Bob Crosby's Bobcats before being hired as an arranger by Mitch Miller for Columbia Records in 1954. After he wrote the charts for several sizeable Columbia hits during the mid-'50s, Conniff became a solo artist as well, applying his arranging techniques to instrumental easy listening...